Relaxing in the tub

This is not Christian’s first bath, so we only took 200 pictures.

Ahhh, nothing like a nice warm bath… I’ll just relax here for a while… What’s that ruckus?Who dares to disturb my bath?  Send them to the dungeon.Maybe I was too harsh – release Mimi from the dungeon.

Welcome Home, Christian!

What a happy day!  Christian and Kim came home today!  We were so excited to see them. 

Hanging in the crib (room). Eyes open wide.  He took to his flash new mechanized hammock quite well (Uhmmm, it’s not really pink. In fact, it’s more like a peachy orange, it just doesn’t come out well in this photo. Did we kill the fatted calf to welcome Christian and Momma home? This is Christian after he ate a whole steak.

Second visit with new brother

A few more pictures?  Ok.  The girls are so good with Christian – very gentle and sweet.

Claire using the ‘one finger’ technique we taught the girls to use when handling delicate objects.

There’s my beautiful boy!

Chloe and Claire meet their brother, Christian Thaddeus Grammer

I’ll let Kim tell the delivery story – I’ll only say here that it was amazing and we credit God’s grace completely.  In the afternoon of Christian’s birth, Chloe and Claire (and daddy and Mimi) went for a visit (Mom and Christian will be home in a couple of days).  Here’s Chloe’s first peek…and first nuzzle. And Claire’s peek.

The girls loved holding their baby brother

  Chloe thought a dental exam was in order – well done, Chloe Mimi finally gets to hold Christian – what a blessing having her here.p.s., you can check out some pictures from Christian’s birth on the photo album link in the sidebar.

Little Trip to the Beach – Hahei and Hot Water Beach

A few weeks back we took advantage of the beautiful weather and proximity to picture-perfect beaches to have a little vacation.  We drove about 3hours east of Auckland to the Coromandel Peninsula, the most popular beach destination for Aucklanders.  We stayed in a charming little batch (modest holiday home) a short drive from Cooks, Hahei and Hot Water Beach which had inch worms… Roses… and wild Geese…  We drove to our very own beach.  Where the girls buried daddy in the sand. Cooks beach was nice and sheltered with teeny tiny waves which made for a more relaxing experience since we had no worries about the girls getting pounded by any rogue waves.  Our next destination, Hot Water Beach, is known as the most dangerous beach in NZ for it’s strong  rip currents, so we didn’t do much swimming, although Claire loved running in the surf. Hot Water Beach is best known for it’s geothermal activity.  When the tide is out you can dig a hole in the sand and it will fill with water heated by the magma just inches below the sand.  The ‘hot spots’ attract a lot of visitors. As you can see, we steered clear of the crowds, confident that we’d uncover our own little magma pool. Chloe and momma picked a spot while Claire and daddy spread out a bit to increase our chances. We also had a chance to take a nice little hike. All in all a perfect trip.  Thank you, God.

My ethnicity - ‘Other’

As I recall, forms in the US that asked for my ethnicity gave me the option of ‘white/Caucasian’.  Other options were black, hispanic or asian, then there was an ‘other’ option.  I always checked ‘white/caucasian’, although it is well documented that my peeps have chinese, jewish, native american, black and arabian blood, in addition to our swiss, irish, english and german (no french) which gives our white tone.  Well, here are the choices you get in New Zealand. 

What do I identify with here?  ‘Other European’?  What’s ‘New Zealand European’?  I’m tempted to lean on my chinese heritage so that I don’t have to go into my explanation of ‘other’.  I could go with ‘other European’, I guess.  But, I check ‘other’ and explain ‘American, mostly white looking - North American, not South American.’  So, when will the North American mutt (not Canadian) become it’s own ethnicity?  Or will globalization make this categorization obsolete?

Baby Claire

Had to catch this while I could before my baby becomes a big girl! She'll be two in a couple of weeks and she'll be a big sister. Wow. Wonder if she'll still let me hold her! She's still in a lovely stage of giving me BIG kisses, hugs, and "eating [me] all up!" She's just started saying, "What's this called, Momma?" (instead of just "what this?") She loves babies and Elmo and wants to give Elmo his "nummy" (dummy) for bedtime. She wants to "hold him"/"hold it," when it comes to babies or animals. She and Chloe are doing lots of pretend play and she'll now pretend she's the "sharp tooth" (T-rex dinosaur) and make a growling noise, put up her claws, and chase us around. She loves "Tickle Tunnel," ice pops, "Baby Goofy" on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, her nummy, her "blank-e-lie" (though which one she loves changes from night to night!). We're just lovin' this gorgeous girl and know she's gonna be as wonderful a Big sister as she is a wonderful Little sister!

The Last Hoorah!

After returning from our US visit, Mike and I began the countdown to new baby
and have gone on a rampage of "last-for-awhile's," such as going on dates, like this one
where we hired a babysitter (who even fed the girls dinner and put them to bed!), while
we went out to "White" for fine dining to celebrate Josh and Amy's 30th! We've been planning
on it for months, since the McClaren's gave us the heads up that they'd be going all out
to celebrate, so I asked for it as my Christmas present and the fam even chipped in for
the perfect dress that I found at the last minute! We had such a fun time and the food was AMAZING!

Momma's Bday present from Chloe

At 3 years old, Chloe walked into the shop with Daddy, saw this purple geode stone, and knowing purple is Momma's favorite color, she asked Daddy if they could buy it for me for my birthday! Its the first gift she's chosen for me herself and I feel so honored. The family pic is on Valentine's Day and the second pic is just after she gave me the gift on my birthday.